LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

Existing law establishes a public school financing system that requires state funding for county superintendents of schools, school districts districts, and charter schools to be calculated pursuant to a local control funding formula, formula (LCFF), as specified. Existing law requires funding pursuant to the local control funding formula to include, in addition to a base grant, supplemental and
concentration grant add-ons that are based on the percentage of pupils who are English learners, foster youth, or eligible for free or reduced-price meals, as specified, served by the county superintendent of schools, school district district, or charter school. Existing law specifies the amount of the base grant in the 2013–14 fiscal year, as provided, and requires that amount to be adjusted for inflation in subsequent fiscal years. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to compute the supplemental and concentration grant add-ons as certain percentages of the amount of the base
grant. Existing law, upon full implementation of the local control funding formula, requires, as a condition of the receipt of a specified adjustment to base grant funds, all school districts to maintain an average class enrollment for each schoolsite for kindergarten and grades 1 to 3, inclusive, of not more than 24 pupils for each schoolsite in kindergarten and grades 1 to 3, inclusive, unless a collectively bargained alternative ratio is agreed to by the school district.

This bill would delete the provision specifying the amount of the base grant in the 2013–14 fiscal year and would instead specify new, higher amounts for the
2019–20 fiscal year, which would also increase the supplemental and concentration grant amounts and result in various other changes to funding calculations for purposes of the local control funding formula. The bill instead would impose that average class enrollment condition upon full implementation of the local control funding formula or commencing with the 2019–20 fiscal year, whichever is earlier. express findings and declarations of the Legislature with respect to the level of funding provided to K–12 public schools in the state. The bill would also express the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation providing that, beginning in the 2019–20 fiscal year, the state shall begin to provide increases to the LCFF and fund California K–12 public schools at a level that is equal to, or above, the average of the top 10 states nationally by 2025 and, at a minimum, to maintain this level of funding indefinitely.

Digest Key

Vote:
MAJORITY
Appropriation:
NO
Fiscal Committee:
YESNO
Local Program:
NO

Bill Text

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(1) Despite California’s leadership in the global economy, this state falls in the nation’s bottom quintile in nearly every measure of K–12 public school funding and staffing.

(2) California ranks 45th nationally in the percentage of taxable income spent on education, 41st in per-pupil funding, 45th in pupil-teacher ratios, and 48th in pupil-staff ratios, and K–12 public school funding in this state has
not substantially increased, on an inflation-adjusted basis, for more than a decade.

(3) Under the local control funding formula (LCFF), state funding for K–12 public schools has only recently returned to the levels of funding that predated the Great Recession that began around 2007, and the modest revenue increases since the implementation of the LCFF have been eroded by rapidly increasing costs for health care, pensions, transportation, and utilities.

(4) Fifty-eight percent of California’s K–12 public school pupils are eligible for free and reduced-price lunches, which is 13 percent above the national average, and 23 percent of California K–12 public school pupils are English learners, which is more than twice the national average.

(5) California funds its K–12 public schools at a level that is roughly $1,961 per
pupil lower than the national average, and this amount translates to $3,462 per pupil when it is adjusted to reflect California’s high cost of living. California trails the average of the top 10 states in per-pupil funding by almost $7,000 per pupil.

(6) In order to prepare our pupils for participation in a democratic society and an increasingly competitive, technology-driven global economy, California must fund public schools at a level sufficient to support pupil success.

(7) If California is to close opportunity and achievement gaps and create a K–12 public school system that offers consistently high levels of education, this state must provide public schools with the resources to meet the needs of their specific pupil populations.

(b) Therefore, it is the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation providing
that, beginning in the 2019–20 fiscal year, the state shall begin to provide increases to the LCFF to address the existing inequities in per-pupil funding and fund California K–12 public schools at a level that is equal to, or above, the average of the top 10 states nationally by 2025 and, at a minimum, to maintain this level of funding indefinitely.